Chair’s Homily February 2025
So why am I here?
Why have I travelled so far?
And how did I get here?
I seem to be in a questioning mood these last few months. The questions this month are interesting and can be answered on many levels and contexts. I am only going to be writing about two of those levels, the physical and the spiritual. Let’s start with the physical. I am currently in Bodhgaya in India. The place where Gautama gained Enlightenment and thus became Buddha.
Today I have been meditating under the Bodhi tree, close to the spot where the Buddha gained Enlightenment. This spot is often referred to as the Vajrasana. The Bodhi tree is a sion of the original, but it is still a massive tree that has grown here for hundreds of years. Its long spreading branches are supported by metal struts providing much appreciated shade for those meditating beneath.
I suppose I got here by being an Order Member, an Order Member that values the unity of our Order and Movement. This is the largest Order gathering so far, and I am surrounded by over 800 other Order Members from all around the world. The large majority of whom are on home turf and have come from all parts of India and that is still quite a journey. The rest, about 200, are from Australia, Mexico and Europe.
This week we will be practising, making friendships, eating together and sharing stories about what is happening in our particular corner of Triratna. I talked with Indian OMs who are inspired by the good that Triratna can bring to people. As an example, one person I spoke to is just starting a Buddhist agricultural college and setting up a 40 acre teaching farm. In his spare time he is doing a PhD on the teachings of Dr Ambedkar, very impressive and a fully lived life.
I’ve talked with the Indian Order Members who so ably took care of us on our Ipswich pilgrimage, two years ago now. They were keen to hear news of the Ipswich pilgrims and how they have been faring back home. They send their love and best wishes. Many people are also very interested in the developments in Ipswich, and I have lost count the number of times I have had to explain our plans for a new Buddhist Centre. They have also offered good advice and ideas.
This is the fifth time I have visited Bodhgaya, every time it changes and expands. What were once rice fields are now hotels and temple complexes. India can be a challenging place, everything is very different from Ipswich and being here forces you to reassess your assumptions. You have to let go of your usual comforts and refuges and just go with the flow and chaos that is India. Every time I visit I am changed.
I nearly didn’t come on this trip, there is still much to do back in Ipswich. A new Centre project to move forward and there is the day-to-day tasks that are required to run a Buddhist centre and keep you (and the rest of the Ipswich sangha) happy and progressing on the spiritual path.
But Bodhgaya is a place of spiritual inspiration like no other. It provides a connection to the Buddha that in this place seems to effortlessly transcend time. Personally, I can feel the Buddha, feel his presence which is deeply refreshing and has a strong positive effect on my meditations. This is the consciousness, the mental space in which I now find myself. There is, as in the physical world, a sense of a permanent place, a solid Going for Refuge and a freedom from the tribulations that life presents. Being able to travel to, and be in Bodhgaya feels like the fruits of a life lived as best I can, in the service of the Dharma. The true difficulties of travelling have been internal; changing one’s life, habits and conditions from negative to positive versions. To overcome fears that one meets along any path, whether physical or spiritual. To face one’s own demons and finally arrive here, at a place that offered Enlightenment to at least one person.
This may not seem it, but this is a Homily about devotion and gratitude. Sitting here, under the Bodhi tree I am caught up in the emotions of thousands of Buddhist pilgrims who have travelled here out of a deep personal gratitude towards the Buddha. Their devotion to the Buddha is palpable. I find myself often crying, tears of gratitude for the efforts the Buddha made thousands of years ago to free himself and achieve Enlightenment. Also to all those that have through many generations also strived to lead a Buddhist life. In this place there are thousands of people, showing their devotion to the Buddha in many different ways. Many are bowing or prostrating. Some spend all day here prostrating at the temple and reciting mantras. So many make offerings of flowers and scarfs that they have to be regularly removed. But it is the internal offering that one makes that these external offerings merely hint at that are of interest. The most worthy offering is one’s own Going for Refuge, taking the Buddha’s ideas and example to heart, and striving to live in accordance with his teachings. One of the practices that the Order and those who have asked for ordination can do is the ‘Going for Refuge and prostration practice’. This practice draws on the spiritual inspiration and example of those that have down the ages kept Buddhism alive in their own cultures. Many here are doing their particular school’s version with different figures, but still with that same gratitude to past teachers and the lineage of inspiration.
I am also carrying with me the gratitude I feel for all of the Ipswich sangha. You all are making the transition from our current cramped building to a new spacious Buddhist Centre possible. Your generosity in many ways is moving and it has inspired others I have talked to this week to think bigger and bolder. Ipswich may be a small town but its effects and inspiration are now stretching around the world.
I will end with a passage from one of Urgyen Sangharashita’s memoirs, The Rainbow Road. It beautifully describes the first time that Bhante went to Bodhgaya in 1949.
Bodh Gaya! Bodh Gaya! How many people have come to you in the course of ages!
How many pilgrim feet have trodden the dust of your groves, how many pairs of hands been joined in silent adoration beneath the wide-spreading boughs of the Tree of Enlightenment, how many heads touched in profound thanksgiving the edge of the Diamond Throne!
Bodh Gaya! Bodh Gaya! How beautiful you are in the morning, with the sunlight streaming on the renovated façade of your great temple as it rises four-square against the cloudless blue sky! How beautiful in the evening, when in the shadowy depths of the deserted temple courtyard a thousand votive lamps glitter like reflections of the stars!
Bodh Gaya, I shall always remember how beautiful you were the first time I saw you, when my heart was young, and you made me your own!
See you all soon,
Bodhivamsa
